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I've threatened a diary for a while now, but with my wedding to pay for it's been a very expensive year so far. I get married this month so everything is almost paid off now and from September I can really start my MF Mission.

Option 1 -Pay off in less than 10 years with intention to rent out
Option 2 -Pay off AMAP to gain higher equity to use for up-sizing

Option 2 is most likely IMO as we may have another child in the next 10 years which will mean up-sizing is almost inevitable.

Mini targets-

Dec 2016 - Balance below £100k - COMPLETE
Dec 2017 - OP £6k

Overall target 120 Payments to go (just under 10 years)

Lets see how I do

Mortgage Term Reduced by 3Yr 5 mth

BALANCE AT START OF MORTGAGE - £140,000

Mortgage Dec 2015 - £110,580
Mortgage Dec 2016 - £99,932

Last edited by lippy1923; 01-06-2017 at 7:49 PM.
Reason: Updated mortgage term reduction

Yeh I am adamant that artificial grass is the way to go. We had normal grass when we first moved in but it always looked like an overgrown jungle scene out of Jumanji!

We dug it up ourselves and replaced with some free patio slabs so its always been easy and never have to think about it. We now need the grass back for our boy to play in the garden a bit more safely. Not exactly cheap but DH is friends with the contractor doing it for us, so got a decent deal.

Don't worry SJ, we have the same timescales so at some point your figures will match mine and we will be neck and neck in this rather long MF race

Really pleased with the garden. Astroturf looks fab and my son loves it. Had a nice bbq yesterday eve to celebrate the new look.
House insurance I am also really pleased with. Current insurer thought £200 was a good deal with apparently 42% discount for my number of NCB. Compare the market had other ideas and found me a policy for £124 with much better cover, less excess and generally a lot less admin fees if I ever needed to make an amendment. I cant actually see anything my old insurer offered that was cheaper or better!

Dentist wasn't much fun, a filling cracked so had to have that patched. £50 for a 5 min job Can't complain about their customer service though, had me booked in for the repair in under 24 hours and did a good job.

Been running the figures through the spreadsheet and I THINK I can just about manage to pay it all off and not dive into my savings too much. Hoping to still have £23k left so only spending £300 of my savings. This is due to a combination of work bonus for me and our mortgage lender finally paying us our £100 cashback for staying with them during the switch.

I have already paid for the watch and the dentist. Put the house insurance on the 0% CC, so wont have to worry about that until the end of the year.

Will see the damage done next week when all the normal bills come out.

ANYWAY- New month. £500 OP paid into my regular saver.
I also got news from my mortgage lender about OPing in future. As suspected, each OP year is from the date of the deal, so Jul-Jul. What I didn't expect was the amount I am allowed to OP. I thought it was 10% of the balance left, but its 10% of the original mortgage balance each year, so £14k! Will see what rates a like after my regular saver finishes so see if its worth physically overpaying or to stick it somewhere better.

Any particular colour of colouring in?? I use black but then go on my spreadsheet and enter the month and year to the brick. I then have the same colour for the year, before changing each January. I then reprint the house! How geeky! You can only imagine the stick I get off Mrs SJ!

I was using black, but now its any random colour that can be found. Might remember me saying a while ago I let DH have a go at colouring it in, to include him in my geekyness and he completely ruined it for a laugh

I do have a graph on my spreadsheet which is colourful and he cannot access it so I am content.

Done the figures and paid for the garden. Somehow I came out on top, with a nice new back garden and £200 extra added to the savings pot. I cant figure it out, but will roll with it...... at least until I realise I have overlooked something lol

Another £100 added to the savings pot. Not sure how long it will stay there, but determined to keep it there until I can recoup my spending pot on payday. Only 18 days to go lol

Really need some motivation for revising. I have 1 week till my exam but every time I sit down to revise it never goes well. I keep worrying there is not enough time and after a revision session thinking I havnt done enough. Nothing is sinking in either which is annoying. I keep testing myself on things I have learnt, but can never remember key bits! Now I'm sitting on here instead of revising!

Any tips for exam revision? I am writing flash cards, but don't feel like its sinking in.

Hey I found writing things down in bullet points worked for me... and writing them down in blocks of 3 or 5 so it's easier to remember each block of bullet points if that makes sense. Good luck with your exam next week... I'm sure you'll do fine

I'm revising too at the minute, I wish I had some good advice but I generally just write notes, highlight key points and make flash cards. Oh, and cram right before the exam. People say it doesn't work but I wouldn't pass if I didn't do that

1)I took my exam, but sadly didn't finish in time, so only covered about 75% of the paper Not looking forward to those results in a few months time.
2)Credit card bill has come through on DH's card. Hes been on a spending spree this month so that's come in at over £1k on its own causing me to twitch with annoyance. Looks like no saving for me this month.
To top it off, coming in at number 3, I somehow (really don't know what happened) managed to twist my ankle yesterday, so now sporting a swollen painful mess of a foot. Happy Weekend to me.

Payday tomorrow! Hurry up please. I have been counting down for over 2 weeks. I always treat myself as if I am living on the breadline, but its nice to know there is money lurking if needed. Glad I managed to keep that extra £100 in the savings this month.

My birthday has come and gone again so going to make sure I use the money I got to actually treat myself instead of putting it aside for OP's. I'm going to get another small tattoo and my hair done with the dosh.

I don't know what's happening these last few months. Not really on top of my money and seem to be savings more than expected.
Payday for hubby has come today so sorted out all monies for next months DDs. Somehow I have gone from £23,600 - £24800! I know DH got some overtime but still not sure where £1200 has come from in 1 month! Especially as he went spend happy on the CC this month so was expecting some struggles.

Anyway, I will stash it and wait and see if any surprises pop up that I have forgotten about.

-£500 "OP" made
-£700 added to savings (gawd knows how)
-Some good news.... Passed my first exam I took a few months ago

Only £200 off the £25k mark in savings! Very excited to hit/exceed that. Don't think I have ever had that much before except for our house deposit. Going to do some account sweeping to see what I can scrape together and tackle the jars in the house and see what I can accumulate. Might be tempted to sell something on ebay to get me to £25k. I am too impatient to wait until Aug payday lol.

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